Randal Rauser

Home of progressively evangelical, generously orthodox, rigorously analytic, revolutionary Christian thinking (that's what I'm aiming for anyway)

epistemology

Are there sufficient reasons to believe in God? My Opening Statement

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In May, 2020, I participated in a debate on this question: Are there sufficient reasons to believe in God? My debate partner Sam and I divvied up the labor as follows: I argued that there are sufficient ‘reasons’ (i.e. properly basic grounds) to believe in God. Meanwhile, Sam argued that there are sufficient non-basic reasons […]

Who is Irrational? Some Quick Observations on the Rauser-Smalley Debate

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I’m not going to comment on the entire debate. Instead, I will limit my comments to the historical resurrection of Jesus and related issues. In my debate on the rationality of Christian belief, David C. Smalley asked for historical evidence that Jesus rose from the dead. I provided evidence. I noted that there is no […]

Is Rationality Over-Rated?

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The other day, I watched the 2019 Clint Eastwood film Richard Jewell about the security guard who discovered a bomb at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and was subsequently accused of being the bomber. Jewell’s mother (played in the film by the always-excellent Kathy Bates) stood by her son, never doubting him for a minute. It […]

Why I Don’t Talk About the Sensus Divinitatis When I Talk About Belief in God

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Alvin Plantinga famously appeals to the existence of a sensus divinitatis, a “sense of the divine”, as the cognitive faculty by which one can form justified and rational belief in God apart from evidence. In this video, I explain why I prefer to argue for properly basic belief in God by way of the more […]

Does Being a Christian Mean Giving Up on Evidence?

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This is a sermon I recorded for a local church in our time of coronavirus home-church. In the sermon, I argue that Jesus was centrally concerned with evidence to support his claims and this bequeathed to the church a strong emphasis on faith that is grounded on evidence as exemplified in the Apostle Paul and […]

God, Morality, and Knowledge: A Conversation with Eric Murphy

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This evening, I appeared on the personal YouTube channel for Eric Murphy of “Talk Heathen.” Though the original intent was to talk about moral arguments for God’s existence, we spent the bulk of our time talking about epistemology generally and moderate foundationalism in particular. But hey, that’s fine with me! It was a very enjoyable […]

Should theological claims be judged by Popper’s Falsification Criterion?

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Today, I’ve gotten into discussions with folks on Twitter about whether Karl Popper’s principle of falsification should be invoked to judge the value/veracity/legitimacy of theological theories. Things got going with my tweet in response to Counter Apologist. (Follow up on Twitter to see our full back-and-forth exchange.) It's interesting how many atheists assume without question […]

The extraordinary claim that Christianity is irrational

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This happens a lot: atheists online tell me that my beliefs are “absurd” or (only slightly more charitably) that I’m “irrational”. Here is an example of an exchange with a gentleman named Steven Tiger. He begins by taking the view that Christianity is ridiculous. Then he modifies it to the view that it is irrational […]